After almost 16 months of public and private turmoil, the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission has finally chosen an experienced regulatory leader as its new executive director.
Illinois Cannabis Division Manager David Lakeman, who previously worked for the CCC, beat out three other finalists who sat down for public interviews with the three currently active members of the commission. Before the commission can officially announce his start date, Lakeman and the CCC will still have to negotiate his salary, and he will have to figure out when the Illinois Department of Agriculture will let him leave.
Lakeman will potentially be taking the helm of an agency that has been struggling through inner turmoil for almost two years that included rotating commission chairs and an ongoing dispute over the agency’s governing structure.
“We are no longer a startup, and I’m looking for the individual who can hit the ground running and bring not only the agency but the industry to the next level with that anticipatory thought of federal movement,” said Commissioner Kimberly Roy while discussing the decision with her fellow commissioners during a live-streamed meeting on Oct. 28 where commissioners Bruce Stebbins, Nurys Camargo and Roy interviewed each candidate before voting on a selection.
“I think Mr. Lakeman can take us from zero to 100 and bring us to the next level and address the challenges – and there’s some considerable challenges in this industry,” Roy continued.
“The industry moves fast so we need to move faster ourselves, and I think David will help us do that,” added Camargo.
Lakeman has been in charge of the Division of Cannabis Regulation within the Illinois Department of Agriculture since September 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile.
An assortment of different government agencies oversee separate aspects of the market in Illinois. The Department of Agriculture’s Division of Cannabis Regulation is responsible for licensing almost all aspects of the legal cannabis market. The exception is dispensaries, which the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation oversees.
Prior to that, Lakeman was director of government affairs for the CCC in Massachusetts from 2018 to 2020 and a legislative analyst for the Massachusetts Municipal Association from 2015 to 2018.
The commissioners run the monthly meetings and have ultimate authority to approve any regulatory, licensing or enforcement action through a majority vote. In contrast, the executive director leads the day-to-day operations of the agency and provides the commissioners with recommendations on items up for a vote.
Fired commission chairperson sues again
The executive director position has to be approved by a majority of what is typically a five-member commission, although the former chair was suspended by State Treasurer Deb Goldberg and formally terminated on Sept. 9.
Commissioner Ava Callender Concepcion is currently on maternity leave. This leaves the commission down to three members, who still need at least three votes to approve items, meaning that it has to be a unanimous decision.
The CCC’s first chair was Steven Hoffman, who was appointed in 2017 and resigned from his post with months left on his five-year term in April 2022. The state treasurer has the authority to appoint the commission chair.
After a brief period during which Sarah Kim, chief counsel for the treasurer’s office, served as interim chair, Goldberg named Shannon O’Brien as the permanent chair.
Roughly a year after O’Brien took office, Goldberg placed O’Brien on administrative leave in September 2023, after she allegedly made racially insensitive remarks and created a hostile work environment. That was reportedly within the context of O’Brien constantly butting heads with former Executive Director Shawn Collins, according to court documents O’Brien filed in a lawsuit against the suspension.
As part of her lawsuit O’Brien demanded a public hearing rather than a private one to determine whether she should be fired. O’Brien ultimately lost in court, and finally on Sept. 9, she was officially terminated as chair.
O’Brien is still attempting to regain her job. She reportedly filed a petition with the state’s Supreme Judicial Court on Nov. 8 demanding that she be reinstated as the commission chair.
Meanwhile, the state legislature’s Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy held a hearing on Oct. 30 on the CCC’s regulatory structure.
